The No. 15 Nebraska Huskers women's tennis team (7-1, 1-0 Big Ten) faces off against the Illinois State Redbirds (3-1, 0-0 MVC) and Colorado State (0-1, 0-0 MWC) following a big weekend away from home at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The Huskers are on a hot streak this season, falling only to No. 10 Miami this past weekend, with an outstanding record and they are focused on victory. The Huskers, if they continue at their current pace, are on track to surpass last year’s record at 24-5 which is currently the school’s best record to date.

Huskers In The ITA National RankingsNebraska’s current rank at 15th is the highest in school history, surpassing the previous mark set last season at 16th. The ITA Division I women’s tennis rankings were released Tuesday, Feb. 12 following the big weekend in Charlottesville, Va. that hosted the National Team Indoor Championships. Falling to No. 10 Miami, only then to defeat No. 21 Vanderbilt and No. 15 Baylor, Nebraska has jumped two places to land at No. 15 in the nation this week.

Mary Weatherholt has found herself ranked No. 16 in ITA singles due to her undefeated record (8-0, 4-0 ranked opponents) on the season, including matches against then-ranked No. 16 Ema Burgic of Baylor who is now at No. 13, No. 23 Brynn Boren of Tennessee who is now No. 18, No. 58 Britney Sanders of Notre Dame who is now No. 74, and No. 41 Kelsey Dieters of Ohio State who is now No. 53.

Mary Weatherholt and partner Patricia Veresova find themselves in the ITA doubles rankings at No. 18. The two are undefeated (6-0, 1-0 ranked opponents) on the season, including a victory over then-ranked No. 12 Brynn Boren and Kata Szekely of Tennesse who are now No. 3.

Nebraska is currently 5-1 against teams ranked in the ITA top75, all but one of whichwere top 25 teams. The Huskers have knocked off No. 15 Baylor, No. 18 Notre Dame, No. 21 Vanderbilt, No. 23 Tennessee, and No. 55 Ohio State.

Nebraska's only loss came to tenth-ranked Miami at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 8.

The Huskers are the third-highest ranked team in the Big Ten trailing only behind No. 10 Northwestern and No. 13 Michigan. Ten teams from the Big Ten are in the top 75 this week, with a total of four in the top 25. The remaining ranked Big Ten teams are No. 24 Purdue, No. 31 Illinois, No. 48 Penn State, No. 54 Indiana, No. 55 Ohio State, No. 62 Minnesota, and No. 75 Wisconsin.

Mary Weatherholt Again Earns Big Ten Athlete of the Week The Huskers senior from Prairie Village, Kan. won the Big Ten Women’s Tennis Athlete-of-the-Week honors on Feb. 13 following her impressive undefeated record (8-0 singles, 6-0 doubles) including several victories over ranked opponents in both singles and doubles. This marks the second time that Weatherholt has earned the award this season thus far, after claiming the honors the week of Jan. 30.
On the Record Hunt Being undefeated on the season with 14-0 combined (8-0 single, 6-0 doubles), Weatherholt jumps to No. 3 on the Career Combined Wins list in the school's record books with a totaly of 170. She only needs 12 more combined wins on the season to become the winningest women’s tennis player in Huskers history (11 to tie record) currently held by former teammate Madeleine Geibert with 181 total career combined wins for Nebraska (Weatherholt 156 concluding 2012 and 170 including 2012-13).

Weatherholt, with her 8 singles victories thus far this season, has tied the record for Career Singles wins at 101 currently held by Sandra Noetzel from 1996-2000. With a win Friday or Sunday, she will replace Noetzel at the top spot on in the record books.

Stefanie Weinstein has notched 18 combined victories this season which pushes her into the top five of Career Combined wins (with 153) at the No. 5 spot, formerly held by Katarina Balan with 151 who now is pushed out of the top 5 to No. 6. 12 more wins would see her topple the No. 4 spot which is now held by Imke Reimers at 164 total who was pushed down from third place after being overtaken by Weatherholt this season.

Weinstein also has eight individual doubles wins this season which bumps her to the No. 2 spot on the school's Career Doubles Individual Wins list at 77. This pushes former No. 2 Imke Reimers 74 to third and former No. 3 Sandra Noetzel's 71 to fourth, Weinstein former mark.

Looking AheadNebraska hosts Colorado State on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 11 a.m. here at the Nebraska Tennis Center. Next weekend, the Huskers welcome UALR and Wyoming to Lincoln. The match against UALR is Friday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. and the match against Wyoming is Sunday, Feb. 24 at 11 a.m.

Illinois State is currently 3-1 overall with no matches played in their Missouri Valley Conference. The Redbirds are currently on a 3 matching win streak, coming off a victory against IUPUI on Feb 8 resulting in a 5-2 score. Illinois State currently is not ranked nationally and don’t have any players in the singles or doubles rankings. Last season the Redbirds went 13-11, 5-2 MVC. The Redbirds have never defeated the Huskers who lead the series 3-0. The last time these two teams met was on Feb. 6, 2011 which resulted in a 7-0 victory for Nebraska.

Colorado State currently sit with a 0-1 overall and no matches played in their Mountain West Conference. The Rams have only played one match so far this spring against rivals Colorado, in which they lost 6-1. Colorado State is not currently ranked in the national standings as a team and have no singles or doubles individual rankings either. The Rams have never beaten the Huskers who lead the series 15-0. Nebraska defeated Colorado State last season 7-0 in Lincoln on Feb. 26, 2012.